Thursday, November 24, 2005

Forced busing of kid to bad areas pays off

CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md. -- Another student was beaten on a school bus in Prince George's County, and her parents are pledging legal action.
The seventh-grader said she was assaulted by a group of girls on her ride home Tuesday. This is the second alleged school bus assault of a Walker Mill Middle School student in less than a month, and some parents said they fear for their children every time they get on a bus.
The parents of Karley Berry, 12, say their daughter is a model student in the talented and gifted (TAG) program at Walker Mill. She is a straight-A student.
"When we entered her into the TAG program, we did so with a number of reservations," said Karley's father, Shawn Berry. "The TAG program requires that you bus your kids into or out of neighborhoods that you might not necessarily choose for your kid to go. In our particular circumstance, we had to send our child into an area that has a particularly high crime rate. We knew from the beginning that bus rides to and from home would be particularly challenging."
....On Oct. 28, another student riding a bus from Walker Mill was assaulted by a gang of girls. The school system said there will be a full investigation.
"Safety in school and on the school bus has to be our top priority, so absolutely we'll look into this," said John White, of Prince George's County Schools. "We've already attempted to contact the father. We want to get all the details so we can get to the bottom of it."
Shawn Berry said he has sent more than 40 e-mails to school officials over the past months expressing concern over the safety of school buses but said for most part, his efforts have been ignored.

Walker Mill Middle School is committed to creating and maintaining a challenging academic learning environment which nurtures disciplined thinking and creative expression for a diverse population while respecting the uniqueness of each individual student. It is our goal to ensure each student's academic, social, and physical well being throughout adolescence.

The sweetness makes my eyes twitch. I got a feeling its one of these " oh you think you too good" envy beatdowns. I never understood the idiocy of forcing gifted kids into crappy schools other than to fulfill some delusion that a couple of smart kids forced to a bad school will magically change it.